I have been wanting to make this cake for about 5 years now. And last week decided I was going to do it. I got this cookbook years ago after a business trip to Dallas. I went to one of Steven Pyles’s restaurants and fell in love with his corn muffins. I liked them so much I asked the restaurant for the recipe, they said I could find it in his cookbook. It was out of print but I found one. In his book I came across this cake and thought it looked so good.

Heaven and Hell Cake

I am not going to lie this cake is a little bit of work. But would be great for a large dinner party and was able to make it a day a head. Was great to have one less thing to make the day of. I had a lot of ganache left over will let you know what later what it inspired me to make:)

Angel Food Cake

1 1/3 Cup of Cake Flour

2 Cups of Confectioners; sugar

2 Cups of egg whites (about 13-14 eggs)

2 Teaspoons of cream of tartar

Pinch of salt

1 1/3 Cup of Sugar

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla

1 Teaspoon of Almond Extract

Devil’s Food Cake

1/2 Cup of Cocoa Powder

1 Cup of Strong Coffee

1/3 Cup of Shortening

1 1/2 Cups of Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

2 Large Eggs

1 1/2 Cups of cake flour

3/4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 Teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

Peanut Butter Mouse

12 oz of Cream Cheese

1 3/4 Cup of Confectioners’ sugar

2 Cups of peanut butter at room temperature

3/4 Cup of heavy cream whipped stiff

Ganache

2 Cups of Cream

2 Pounds of milk Chocolate chopped.

Angel Food Cake

Cut a circle of parchment paper or waxed paper to fit the bottom of a 10-inch cake pan. Do not grease the pan or paper. Preheat oven to 375 F.

Sift together the flour and confectioners’ sugar. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Beat slow;y while adding the cream of tartar and salt. Continue beating for 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and pour the sugar into the whites by tablespoons until all is incorporated. Continue beating about 3 minutes longer. When the egg whites form stiff peaks, add the vanilla and almond extract. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Sprinkle half of the powdered sugar flour mixture over the top of the egg whites and fold in with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle in the remaining sugar-flour mixture and fold in again, using a minimum number of strokes so that the egg eggs do not deflate. Gently spoon the mixture into the pan and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, carefully slice the cake in half horizontally with a serrated knife to make 2 layers.

Devil’s Food Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Oil and flour a 10-inch cake pan.

Sift the cocoa powder into a small mixing bowl; drizzle in the coffee while whisking to make a smooth paste. Combine the shortening, sugar, vanilla, and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat with a paddle attachment for 2 minutes on medium speed.

Sift together the flour, slat, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Alternately add the cocoa-coffee mixture and the dry ingredients to the sugar-egg mixture; continue beating until incorporated. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool, carefully slice the cake in half with a serrated knife to make 2 layers.

Peanut Butter Mousse

Whip the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and creamy. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar. Add the peanut butter, continue beating until thoroughly incorporated and fluffy. Transfer the mixture to another bowl. Place the heavy cream in the electric mixer bowl and whip until stiff. Fold the whipped cream into the peanut buter mixture.

Ganache

Bring the cream to a boil in a medium saucepan Sti in the chocolate. Cover the pan for the chocolate to melt quickly. Once Melted, whisk the mixture to combine thoroughly. Let cool to room temperature before frosting the cake.

Assembly

Place once layer of Devil’s Food cake on a cake plate and sppon 1/3 of the peanut butter mousse on top. Place a layer of the ANgel Food Cake on top of the mousse, then spread with another third of the Peanut Butter Mousee. COntinue layering until you have four layers of cake and three layers of mousse.

Whisk the Ganache and spread with a spatula over the top and sides of the cake to frost generously. Chill for at least two hours before serving.

Heat a wok with the ground nut oil and add the peppercorns, star anise, and red chilli and let cook for about 1 minute. Then add the lardons until nice and crispy. Add the Shaohsing rice wine, rice vinegar, and sesame oil and cook for 30 seconds and add the cucumbers and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from wok and place in a bowl, drizzle with lemon juice and top with Cilantro and roasted peanuts. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I feel these are coming back into vogue. I have always loved them and sometimes forget how simple they are to make. Seriously, it is merging the best of two worlds a brownie and chocolate chip cookies! And the best part, they are so much easier than a chocolate chip cookie since you spread the batter out into a pan and dont have to make individual cookies and wait for one sheet to be done before the other sheet goes in!

Blonde Brownies

Chewy Blonde Brown

Heat Oven 375

1 Cup of Dark Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup of Melted Butter

1 Egg

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract

1 Cup of Flour

1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon of Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

1 Cup of Chocolate Chips ( I used a mixture of white chocolate and semi-sweet dark chocolate)

In a mixing bowl add the dark brown sugar and melted butter and mix until combined followed by 1 egg and vanilla and mix for about 1-2 minutes. Sift in the flour baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix on low until evenly combined and then mix in the chocolate bits.

Grease a 8×8 inch square pan and evenly spread the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a nice light brown crust has formed on the top. Let cool slightly before serving. I think these are great to serve as dessert and could spruce up with some chocolate sauce and ice cream, as an addition to a lunch and served on own or as I made them for a care package since they pack really well!

Since I don’t buy ground beef here making traditional meatballs is difficult. I don’t buy it because every time I have, I have been disappointed with the taste. And especially now because of the recent horse meat scandal across the UK.

I make a chicken burger using more asian influences and decided to do the same with these meatballs. They are simple and taste great.

Pork Balls

1 pound of ground pork meat

1 egg

1/2 Cup of chopped Cilantro

1/2 Cup of finely chopped water chestnuts

1/4 Cup of chopped Scallions

1 1/2 Tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger

1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce

1/3 Cup of Panko bread Crumbs

about 1/2 Cup of Cornstarch to roll the balls in.

Vegetable oil for cooking

In a bowl mix all of the ingredients together until well combined- except the cornstarch and vegetable oil. Now depending on how you are serving, as an appetizer, or as part of main will depend on the size you make your meatballs. I used a larger ice cream scoop since I was serving them as part of a main. Form each ball and then roll around in cornstarch.

Pork Meat Balls Covered in Corn Starch

Heat oil in frying pan, you need enough oil to cover half of the meat ball. Cook for 3 minutes on each side. Serve with Soy Sauce or Duck Sauce.

My sister is in town visiting from Boston. She wanted to go to Brussels for the day, which in theory seemed to be a good idea but ended up being one of those days where everything kind of did not go our way.What we learned- Don’t go to Brussels on Monday. Pretty much everything is closed.

Although in the end despite nothing going how we had planned when we arrived back to London tonight we all said what a great day. We did accomplish what we wanted: Ate a waffle, Fries, and had some beer. I highly recommend trying cherry fruit beer.

Waffles at Le Funambule

Right next to the Manneken Pis- The fountain statue of the little boy going to the bathroom who is only about 1 foot tall!

Mary’s Chocolate-According to Neil’s Belgium Co-worker the best chocolate in Belgium

Beer in the Grand Place

Perle Sugar

I did buy some Perle Sugar at a mini market to make Belgium waffles at home!!! Neil, though just wants to eat the sugar straight from the box. Good thing I bought 3 boxes.

A note about the Eurostar- It is all about booking in advance. Tickets go on sale 4 months in advance and unlike airline tickets where rates can vary and sometimes you can get a last minute deal, not the case with the Eurostar. They are always cheapest buying further out and continue to get more expensive the closer to your departure time.

Yes, San Sebastian is filled with Michelin Starred fining dining restaurants, but in the old town it is filled with fabulous Pintxos/Tapas Bars. The idea is that you have a tapas and drink at one and bar hop to the next. Now when we got in late on Friday night we went out for a short time but all the hot tapas were no longer being served.

Though on Saturday we started at 8:30 pm. We were a group of 7 bar hoping for the evening. Everything at the bars is done on a honor system and what we did for our group was put a kitty together which made it much easier and faster hoping from bar to bar. It was such a fun evening and a great way to try all kinds of different Pintxos.

Octopus Pintxos

Padron Peppers- a must in my book!

Rabbit at A Fuego Negro- One of our Favorites

Cheesecake at La Vina- We had to double our Order.

Here is a list of some of the recommended Pintxos Bars in the Old Town of San Sebastian

Now these are super simple but look like they are a lot more work. We had another couple over for dinner last night and their reaction was “forget writing a blog, start selling these!” I thought that was funny. As Valentines Day was approaching, I used cookie cutters to shape the parmesan into hearts. If you don’t want to go through that , you could easily just eye the amount and make little mounds of parmesan.

Preheat 400

Using shaved or grated Parmesan, place a mound of parmesan inside cookie cutter and make sure evenly distributed on a silpat inside a baking sheet. (See picture below) Sprinkle with a little pepper and bake until golden brown. Let cool before releasing them from the cookie cutter.

I think ratatouille is such a great addition to a meal. Although, tonight I am using the ratatouille as a filling to Crepes. Check out tomorrow how I plan to use the leftover ratatouille as an appetizer inspired by my recent trip to San Sebastian.

In a large pot, (I used my Le Creuset dutch oven). With 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil a 1/4 of the chopped garlic, 3 tablespoons of water sauté the onions until cooked for 5-10 minutes. Remove the onions from the dutch oven and add the eggplant and zucchini with 1/4 of the garlic and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Remove eggplant and zucchini from pan. Now add with 1 tablespoon and 1/4 of the garlic the peppers and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Finally add remaining ingredients and the zucchini, eggplant, onions back into the dutch oven. Mix with a spoon until all well combines and let cook with a lid on low heat for 30 minutes. Ready to serve.

This goes great inside crepes, or as a side to really any meat or fish dish, and honestly I just like to eat it on its own. Tomorrow as I mentioned I will show you something to do with the leftover inspired by my recent travels to San Sebastian.

Today, I was walking through, The Selfridges Food Hall, and I came across these little cakes. Tomorrow night we are having friends over for dinner. I said I would cook if they would provide some help to me on something else. Anyways, I thought these would be a perfect treat to have at the end of dinner.

They are called the Original Magic Cakes made by Konditor & Cook. The fabulous Sparkle Heart Shaped plates were purchased from Target a few years ago!